Friday, June 17, 2005

Conason On Klein's Smear Job

I normally don't have much use for Joe Conason, the author of Big Lies, one of those Alterman-type tomes that takes on 'the rightwing propaganda machine', and whose leftist work on Salon I'm quite familiar with. His recent review of Ed Klein's hatchet job on Hillary, though, has the ring of truth. It should be pointed out that most of us are only familiar with it through the allegation aired on Drudge, the one that I'm not going to dignify by repeating (though if you're curious, you can read about it in Klein's review).

Klein has read the book, though, and he assures us it is full of gossip, inneundo, and slanders big and small, not just on Hillary, but on those who surrounded her during the White House years, as well. To Conason's credit, he acknowledges that even the righthand side of the blogosphere has pulled back in revulsion at the spectacle. This book is going to flop, big, and well it should; we are eager to take Hillary on in the ring of politics, but our opposition should focus on policies and not personalities; character assassination is not the path to victory in 2008.